A Cold Day for Murder (1992)

Former District Attorney Investigator, Kate Shugak, retired after having her throat cut while capturing a serial killer. Both physically and emotionally scarred she now lives alone on her 160 acre homestead in Alaska. When a rookie park ranger and son of a congressmen goes missing in a huge wilderness area known as the 1CPark 1D an investigator and friend of Kate's is sent to find him and now he's missing too. Former lover and boss, Jack Morgan, convinces her to go looking for the missing men because Kate's Aleut family lives in the 1CPark 1D and she might be able to use that to her advantage in hunting for the missing men. Before long she discovers some of her extended family members may be involved in the disappearance.

Kate is a well done character battling the memories and nightmares of the tragedy of her last investigation for the DA's office. The author does a really great job of character development and how Kate balances between the two worlds of her former Anchorage life and her Native Alaskan heritage. Every dog lover will fall for Mutt, Kate's half husky, half wolf dog. Alaska is the show here much the way Minnesota is in the Cork O'Connor series. The sparse frozen land and native culture is a character in itself.

This was a well written story set in a fascinating setting. Kate is a strong character and a no-nonsense problem solver. It's an intriguing and enjoyable introduction to series and I plan to read more.
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If you're a fan of Sue Grafton's feisty Kinsey Millhone, you'll know Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak already. I like her well enough, but I'm not sure that in spite of the fact that she didn't exist before, anyone really had to invent her.

The setting, though, is wonderfully exotic: Alaska is certainly a foreign land to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed encountering a whole new way of life and the lexicon that goes with it.

The investigation can seem glacially slow at times, as much Alaskan background and research is delivered between times, but that's OK - and perhaps now that #1 in the series has done this job, #2 etc can get moving in what will soon be more familiar territory. ( )

"Good characters. Story showing its age"

I'm one of those folks who has to go back to the begining of a series. In this case the downside of that was that this story starts to feel a little slow and a little old fashioned, although I'm sure it was leading edge when it was published.

The book has a strong sense of place and some deeply (although not subtly) carved characters who make you care what happens to them,

The plot is complicated enough to be interesting with being annoyingly clever.

Perhaps I'm just not used to the accent but I was distracted by the fact that the reader placed stresses in unexpected places. She did dialogue well but the descriptive pieces lacked focus. It seemed her voice needed a little more range.

I will continue with this series on audio book ( )

Kate Shugak is asked to look into the disappearance of a well-connected park ranger and the investigator originally sent to find him.

It all feels a bit like the Wild West, though it held my attention more than Westerns do. The interest lies more in the Alaskan setting than the actual mystery, which was pretty run-of-the-mill. ( )

This is the first book I'd read by Stabenow and I really enjoyed it. Good background information on Alaska and how people live in the remotest parts of that state. The ending wasn't telegraphed nor was it too obscure for the reader to have figured out. The main characters weren't fleshed out as well as I would have liked, but the ancillary characters were terrific. She was able to convey a lot about them in very few words, relatively speaking. A quick, enjoyable read. ( )